Practical Sales Training™ > Keep Happy > The Error Message Effect
The Error Message Effect
Things go wrong. Websites crash, orders get delayed, systems break. It happens to every business eventually.
The Error Message Effect is about what you do next. Handle it well, and a mistake can actually build more trust than a clean run ever would.
What Is It
The Error Message Effect softens the damage when something goes wrong. A playful 404 page, a bit of humour in your marketing, showing your human side can save the day when things don’t go to plan.
Why Does It Work
It works because buyers respect honesty. They also respect a business that owns its mistakes instead of hiding from them.
KFC gave us one of the clearest examples of this. When their supply chain broke down and they ran out of chicken, they didn’t dodge the problem. They fixed it, then ran ads that turned the whole thing into a joke at their own expense. This didn’t just calm people down. It got the brand even more attention than before.
How Can You Use It
Get ahead of it where you can. Playful messaging for when your website or systems go down is a small change most businesses can make right away.
Give your buyers a way out too. Alternative phone numbers, links or steps they can take if something’s not working properly. This turns a frustrating moment into a manageable one.
And when something does go wrong, and eventually it will, deal with it honestly. Take ownership, stay light hearted, and you’ll come out the other side better than if you’d said nothing at all.
When It Works Best
This works best when the mistake is public and hard to hide. Trying to bury a visible problem usually makes it worse, since silence reads as denial.
It’s also strongest when your brand already has some personality. A playful response feels natural coming from a business that’s always had a sense of humour.
When It Becomes Dangerous
This backfires if the humour feels careless rather than self aware. There’s a real difference between laughing at yourself and laughing off a problem that actually hurt someone.
It also fails if you use jokes instead of a real fix. Humour buys you goodwill, but only if the underlying problem actually gets solved too.
Common Mistakes
Issuing A Bland, Generic Apology
A flat, corporate sounding apology does very little. It doesn’t show ownership, and it doesn’t show personality either.
Staying Silent
Saying nothing lets other people write the story for you. Address the problem directly, even if the honest version isn’t flattering.
The Error Message Effect – An Example
In 2018, KFC ran out of chicken across the UK because of a supply chain issue. For a company built entirely around chicken, this was about as bad as a PR problem gets.
Instead of hiding or issuing a bland apology, KFC took out a bold full page ad in national newspapers. It showed an empty chicken bucket with the letters rearranged to spell “FCK,” alongside an honest, funny apology.
The ad acknowledged the mistake with humour and humility. It took full responsibility, with no excuses and no blame passed elsewhere. And it turned public frustration into something closer to admiration.
The campaign was widely praised and shared, and it even helped increase brand sentiment. A genuine crisis became a clever, brand building moment instead. That’s the Error Message Effect done properly.
See Also
